LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne survived a battle on the road and knocked off ALBA Berlin 67-71 to improve to 2-0 to start the season. ASVEL struggled with 20 turnovers but the team’s defense held strong.
ASVEL survives road battle to beat ALBA, improve to 2-0, 67-71
Game Report
4 mins read
Chris Jones scored a career-high 24 points in the win, and Elie Okobo had 13 points with Kostas Antetokounmpo chipping in 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. ALBA could not make use of a club record 19 offensive rebounds in falling to 0-2. Maodo Lo came off the bench to score 22 points while fellow reserve Oscar Da Silva had 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals on his team debut.
Dylan Osetkowski opened the scoring from deep for ASVEL, with Luke Sikma doing the honors for the German champion. Both teams looked a bit nervous early on with a combined 10 turnovers in the first 5 minutes and ASVEL up 4-7. ALBA finally started to score and Lo’s three-pointer gave the hosts their first lead, 9-7. Lo added free throws and another triple and ALBA was up 16-9 - with the lead 18-13 after 10 minutes. Lo continued his excellent surge with a layup to start the second quarter and Louis Olinde’s score had the hosts up 24-17. But after committing 12 turnovers in the first 12 minutes, ASVEL finally started to score with Okobo hitting six straight points in a 0-13 run for a 24-30 advantage. Lo came back off the ALBA bench and hit a three-pointer to end the rut, but Matthew Strazel connected from long range at the other end and ASVEL was up 29-34 at the break.
ALBA had a strong start to the second half with Da Silva scoring four points in a 6-0 run for a 37-34 lead. Okobo’s three-pointer finally got ASVEL on the board and the guests stepped up its defense with a 0-11 run over more than 5 minutes for a 37-45 cushion. Tamir Blatt came back at the other end for five points, reducing the gap to 43-49 after 30 minutes. The tough ASVEL defense continued and Charles Kahudi, Okobo and Jones all drove to the basket as the margin grew to 43-57.
Lo ended ALBA’s bad run with a three-pointer after almost 4 minutes, and the hosts tried to make things interesting as Sikma pulled it within 50-57. Jones responded with two big three-pointers to keep the lead in double figures, 53-63. The hosts would not go down without a fight, and Lo’s layup made it 59-65. But Jones hit a dagger triple with less than two minutes left for an 8-point lead. Lo put the pressure on ASVEL with a layup to get within four points, before Jones hit two free throws with 8.8 seconds left.
